Government Procurement Card

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) staff and (b) special advisers in his Department have use of a Government Procurement Card.

Mark Francois: Currently, 11,614 Government Procurement Cards (GPC) are in issue with the Ministry of Defence. This is a reduction of over 25% compared to the figure of 16,009 GPC cards in issue in 2009. Not all cards are issued individually to staff on a one to one basis. The special advisers have not been issued with a GPC.